School Days

No school today for the Grand kids. I checked the calender and it states," In Service/Transitioning."
This set me to wondering just what does that mean ? I never paid attention to the reason when I was a kid but I don't think we had transition days off or in service days. Must have called them something different.
Almost all the teachers have an aide these days so maybe that has something to do with it. The only aide my teachers had was a paddle. Barring that you were sent to the office !
I think teachers are underpaid given the responsibility they have and I applaud them just for being able to tolerate a bunch of kids all day but I think they have more than enough time off. I'm pretty sure the teachers will be at the school today transitioning or whatever but the point is the kids won't. The kids are the work and if I go to my job and there is no work what am I really doing ? It is the end of a marking period and maybe you have to transit to the next marking period but do you really need a day to prepare for that ?
The school had a half day last Friday couldn't you have transitioned or In Serviced then ? I'm just sayin'.
School budgets are in bad shape and funds are lacking. Should we not use the time allotted in a more productive manner ? We are paying the teachers to teach. They do have a summer break to refresh and prepare for another season of work. Most of us are lucky to get two weeks vacation.
I'll get off this soapbox. I'm just thinking maybe scheduling could be rearranged. The State sets a minimum number of days for a school year. What if instead of striving to meet the minimum we strive to accomplish the maxium?